Accountant Jailed for Stealing £600K from Pop Star Client to Feed Gambling Addiction

An accountant from Essex has been jailed for stealing hundreds of thousands of pounds from the pop star James Arthur who had been his client.

Mark Livermore, 39, is known to have had access to Mr Arthur’s bank accounts and to have used the singer’s money to indulge his addiction to gambling and, more specifically, spread betting.

The now jailed accountant and his firm were hired by Mr Arthur in the wake of his success on the TV talent show X Factor in 2012.

Mr Livermore’s business partner discovered the fraudulent activity involving Mr Arthur after conducting an audit, according to a report from the London Evening Standard.

It emerged that sums worth a total of almost £600,000 were taken from the pop star’s bank accounts and gambled away over the course of a year.

Prior to passing his sentence of four years in prison, the judge in the case heard that Mr Livermore had told Mr Arthur that his use of those funds was a legitimate process relating to taxation, while he later told his business partner that the bets had been placed on behalf of Mr Arthur.

“Up until this happening, you were a hard-working and successful professional, and a very good family man,” Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith is quoted as saying while addressing the defendant in the case. 

“At some point you turned to spread betting and to start with you were doing it with your own money,” he said.  

“I’m told you chose to steal money from James Arthur because you had access to his day-to-day accounts, but the fact you had that access suggests a particular trust was placed in you, trust you betrayed with devastating effects.”

Representatives of Mr Livermore explained that their client was introduced to spread betting a number of years ago and subsequently became addicted to it.

James Arthur’s debut single ‘Impossible’ was a number one hit in the UK and he has since enjoyed sustained success as a singer songwriter and performer having won the ninth series of the X Factor TV show in 2012.